


A Child Named Hope

by DanieXJ



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Post-Canon, post once upon a time, post-ouat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 00:16:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14705532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanieXJ/pseuds/DanieXJ
Summary: About 17 or 18 years after the Series Finale of Once Upon a Time, a new threat is trying to kill everyone in all the realms of Storybrooke.





	A Child Named Hope

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't seen the Series Finale of Once Upon a Time, this may not make any sense. Also, spoilers for the series finale of Once Upon a Time.

“We are not going to die, we are not.” Regina looked around. What was left of the Storybrooke Realm Council was hiding in the underground part of her vault. Maleficent was to her left, an arm around her injured daughter, Regina’s eldest Henry to her right, an arm around his mother Emma.

Regina rubbed her hands together. She’d tried to use magic against their foe, but she had just laughed. She’d tried to talk her, after all, they were almost sort of related. Maleficent and Lily had turned into dragons and tried to fight her that way too, and all they’d gotten for that gambit was Lily on the brink of death, and the five of them huddled in Regina’s vault.

Regina stood, “I have to go back out there. I… I can hear her destroying my town, my realm, killing all those people. This is supposed to be a place for happy endings, not death.”

Maleficent mumbled something under her breath and Regina pinned her with a glare, “What? I’m right. All magic comes with a price. What, did you think that a place where nearly every single person, animal, fairy, et cetera gets their happy ending wouldn’t have a price too?”

That got Emma’s attention. “What, this is your fault Regina?” Emma stood, almost looking as she had decades ago when they’d first met. She poked a finger at Regina, “My daughter turning into this… this abomination… my daughter killing her own…” Emma fell forward a little, Regina catching her by one arm, which Emma pushed away, “Killing Killian. This is your fault?”

Regina was still for a second, then nodded, “Sure. Yes. You can blame me. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“You are not going anywhere by yourself.”

Regina looked over. Lily was the one who had spoken. She was only upright because she was being held up by her mother. “No. You’re hurt, and Mal-- I won’t separate you two again.”

Maleficent grabbed Regina’s arm, “One, you didn’t separate us in the first place, Snow and David did, two, we’re all going to die, so, whether we do it together or apart, doesn’t matter to me.”

Emma stood there, shaking her head. “No, no… this… we can go back in time, I can be a better mother, or, or…”

Henry pulled Emma into a hug, “You are one of the best mothers I have had.” He pulled away a little, “I have to help Mal, Lily, and Mom. Save Ella and Lucy if she hasn’t killed them yet. Will you help us too?”

Emma stared at Henry for a long beat, but after the silence seemed to stretch for minutes, she nodded. “Okay. Do you have any swords in this vault?”

Regina nodded, “In the back, yes.”

Without another word, Emma pulled Henry with her towards the back of the vault.

“So.”

“Yep.”

Regina looked between the two women. “Ah, Lily, let me, um, let me heal you a little.”

Lily took a stumbling step back, “No. No. You need all the magic you have to defeat that… outside. No.”

The vault was silent again. It was Maleficent who finally rolled her eyes, “Here, take her, and let me go get more bandages.” She let Regina slip an arm around Lily, and then went the way Emma and Henry had gone.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t better.”

Regina brushed a lock of hair from Lily’s face, “You were amazing Lily. Everyone who fought, those who died, I saw Scar fighting next to my youngest Henry at one point. I saw Ursula save Archie. It’s... “ Regina looked at one of Lily’s wounds, “It’s I who am sorry Lily. Emma was right. Maybe somehow… me bringing everyone happy endings, villains and heroes alike, meant that the evil, the unhappy all had to go somewhere.”

Lily rolled her eyes, “Right. Except, Hope was born before you cast the Light Curse. Is that really what we’re calling it, makes it seem like it wasn’t that big a curse. Maybe the Bright Curse, ooh, or the Light Bright Curse.” She paused, “You know, you can laugh. It was a joke, or, it was vainly trying to be a joke.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I just…”

Maleficent saved both of them from more bad jokes as she came back into the vault proper, waving the two bandages she’d found. “Okay, let’s lay her down, and then I…”

Regina held out her hand, “I’ll do it. I’ve… I’ve performed more field medicine since that first Dark Curse than I ever thought I would, and usually to those I thought I’d be killing, so…”

Maleficent opened her mouth to disagree, or fight over who should bandage her daughter, but, Lily shook her head, and Maleficent’s mouth closed with a click.

Regina carefully pulled away the bloody bandage and made sure Lily wasn’t looking. As she replaced it just a bit of purple and white magic escaped her fingers and closed the wound just a bit.

Maleficent gasped and Lily winced as Regina pulled the bandage just a bit too tight. “You. You. You’re him. No. You’re him.”

“I--” Regina cleared her throat and went to a hidden sink, cleaning off her hands of blood. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Maleficent closed her eyes, “I had gotten attacked as the dragon by some village or another, but had managed to turn back into… human form and the villagers thought that I was just a naked woman who had gotten nearly killed. They brought me to the village, and a man named Zorro, he… he healed me, and I fell in love with him. You’re Zorro.”

“Diego actually,” Regina turned to face Lily and Maleficent, “I had sort of killed the previous man named Diego de la Vega and took his place, and his face. I was bored and wanted to see how far I could take my magic. I also enjoyed being a vigilante for a while. But, I never, I didn’t… I didn’t think I’d fall in love with you.” She looked down at Lily, “Or that we could produce a child.” She shook her head, “I can’t have children, I had made sure of that.”

There was a humongous bang and all three women looked up. Emma and Henry came running back into the vault proper. Both armed to the hilt with swords and knives. Emma pinned Regina with a glare. “If you kill her. I will kill you. Understand?”

Regina and Maleficent helped Lily to her feet as Regina nodded. “No killing your daughter as she tries to kill us. How about that big ugly thing she seems to have somehow sired or made?”

Emma’s lip curled, “It killed my husband. I’m going to watch it burn.”

She and Henry stormed up the steps. Regina sighed, “Let’s go get some typhus.”

Lily and Maleficent looked at her like she was crazy. “Antoine de Saint-Exupery said…” She shook her head, “Never mind.”

Lily pointed at her mother, and then at Regina. “And you two better not die, I need to hear all about this Zorro, Regina, Maleficent thing that apparently conceived me.”

Lily got nods from both women. There was an unearthly scream above them, and they went up the stairs to meet their fates.


End file.
